Sea Shepherd victory! The organization announced yesterday that their long Antarctic campaign, Operation Divine Wind, is over as the whaling fleet heads back toward Japan.

Sea Shepherd reported that the whalers had been shut down when the Bob Barker began tailing the factory ship, Nisshin Maru. With the Bob Barker following the slipway, the fleet would be unable to take in any more whales, according to Captain Paul Watson and Captain Peter Hammarstedt. Now, Sea Shepherd confirms that the whalers’ season is officially over as the fleet has turned and headed home.

Watson predicted a very successful campaign, saying “The kill figures will not be released by Japan until April, but in my opinion they will not get over 50% for certain and my prediction is it will not be above 30%. Not as good as last season, but much better than all the previous years. It has been a successful campaign. There are hundreds of whales swimming free in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary that would now be dead if we had not been down there for the last three months. That makes us very happy indeed.”

According to Radio Australia News, Watson’s predictions were right on. Japan’s whaling fleet received an extra $31.9 million dollars this year, much of which was used to increase security in response to Sea Shepherd’s campaign. Despite that, the fleet only managed to catch a third of their quota.

In a statement on Sea Shepherd’s Facebook page, Watson said the captains and crew were able to save 768 whales from the harpoons this year. “Of the Minke Whale Kill quota of 935 whales, 266 whales were killed. Of the Fin Whale quota of 50, only 1 was killed. Of the Humpback Whale quota of 50 there were zero kills. I predicted that no more than 300 whales would be killed and that prediction proved to be true. Sea Shepherd chased the Japanese whaling fleet for 17,000 miles and kept two of their three harpoon ships out of the game as we kept the Nisshin Maru constantly running. The Japanese attempt to stop us in the U.S. Court failed. No injuries on either side. Operation Divine Wind has been a major success,” he wrote.

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About Jennifer Mishler

Jennifer Mishler is a writer, and a vegan and animal activist. When she's not writing, you can often find her volunteering or advocating for animal, environmental and human rights causes. Along with writing for Ecorazzi, she has contributed writing for nonprofits like Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and enjoys blogging. She resides in the Washington, DC area (and loves all the vegan food it has to offer). Follow Jennifer on Twitter: @jennygonevegan.

I tortured and killed over 800 animals this season to protest Sea Shepherds violent campaign against innocent Japanese whalers in the Antarctic.

If you want to stop me, stop enabling Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd.

Anonymous

WOOHOO!! Me wuvs Sea Shepards!! oh and Japan u suck.

romika3

“That’s his job. Moost of his postings are nonsencial rants like this one.” well is that calling the kettle black…. perhaps you might be interested in checking out the following site. It is full of nonsencial rants! against hare working fishermen…

romika3

What about about the seal that was skinned alive for the camera? You (although I believe you are not Watson) and Greenpeace new all about it and did nothing…. Because you knew it would bring in the dollars…

romika3

For you information that piece of information, that they used relief funds, can from the mouth of Mr. Watson. In his book “Earthforce” he states that is acceptable to lie and distort data….

Captain Paul Watson

Romika3 is just jealous of my ability to dominate on the high seas. Moostly he wishes he were me.

romika3

Sorry, you are not Paul Watson. There is one thing that I can credit Watson with and that is his ability to spell “mostly”. You cannot!!!

romika3

Japanese you say.Well most of the whales harvested are minke and their population is not endangered. If you are concerned with harvesting whales then why don’t you begin doing something from within your country. Rather that allowing the likes of SSCS to come into Japan an “USE” your fishermen. Watson is interested in nothing more that the opportunity that this issue presents and nothing more. Look at how the member of SSCS mock, abuse and demonize the fishermen of Tiagi. Standup for your people first, deal with the issue in a way that brings about real change in policy….